So, right now the Super Bowl is going on; a yearly event that it seems everyone everywhere obsesses over for reasons I simply cannot grasp in the least.
Let’s seriously look at this for a moment: the Super Bowl consists of 2 groups of adults tossing around some inflated oblong ball, trying to get it to one end or another of a 300+ foot long field, or kick it through some squared-off Y shaped tower structure in a bid to earn more arbitrary points than the opposing group. Upon a set time limit being reached, the group with the greater number of points is deemed to have won the event and are thus “Super Bowl Champions” and have some form of bragging rights for the next year (really few months until the “football season” starts up again) alongside earning some kind of substantial payout and sponsorship deals for the most recognized players in the event. Even the losing team will earn far more money than most of us could ever hope to earn.
This is an event where billions of dollars are spent in advertising, commercials that most people will ignore, using that time for restroom breaks or a chance to grab some food. Of course this advertising makes sense – more people are watching the Super Bowl any other single event of the year, so it’s a great time to put your brand out there. Competition is fierce, and bids for commercial time run fierce and high. Absurd totals, really.
People watch the game as if its outcome actually determines something important in the world. More people watch the game than vote in elections, and care about what team or what player succeeds with the same fervor some do religion. Allegiances to groups they have zero actual connection to that are as strong as some family bonds can be. People will show off their allegiance to these teams, arbitrary groupings that often times don’t even represent the locale of the fan, on what clothing they wear, phone wallpapers, their personal social media pages, or even their cars and houses! They receive no compensation for the money spent on these things, instead spending their own hard earned money to show their allegiance to this arbitrary and in the end, meaningless group that has zero actual impact on the world.
This is all seen as perfectly normal, and perfectly acceptable. To be this obsessed with a group of people tossing around some oblong ball. This is perfectly normal to society.
Yet, if you say you don’t care about sports, oh, something is wrong with you! People sometimes seemed shocked and appalled that someone dare not obsess over the same thing they do, let alone, heaven forbid, you don’t like the same team as they do! Oh no, you can’t be unique, you must like this or else!
Why? Why is this still something people care about? I could understand way back when, when there wasn’t quite much else to do and going to see a rousing sporting event was a way to spend the day, but we have so many options now. Sure, there is nothing wrong with liking sports, don’t take it that way, but the fact remains as the years pass this only grows larger and larger, never ceasing, compared to other forms of entertainment which seem to have stabilized. Football, however, just keeps on going – it keeps on growing. Each year more and more, you can’t escape it.
I’ve read several studies on this, and they all say that it speaks to a primitive part of the human psyche, and I can certainly agree with that. The tribal nature of teams, the combat that is the actual game, nurturing our competitive needs, and the sense of being a part of something beyond yourself, your day to day life, certainly those are things some of us desire, but not all.
I, for one, hate tribalism – I despise the nature of it, down to its core. I’m often accused of such in my gaming or space interests, and while I can be grouped into certain categories in my interests, to treat me as somehow excessive in my allegiance to anything (or to say that I have an actual allegiance, by any definition) is outright wrong.
I absolutely despise excess competition as well. I don’t take interest in most “us versus them” situations beyond casual fun – playing a game for the sake of it, for example. Conflict is something I wish to avoid in all situations, and with sports, things get pretty heated at times. It’s all about competition, and I’m just not about that, to that degree.
That’s not to say I won’t play the occasional video game that’s player versus player competition, of course, but that’s somewhat rare, and is never the reason I actually choose to purchase a given game – hell, I usually stay away from them unless it’s something I really think I will enjoy despite that element.
This leads to the case of e-sports: Electronic Sports, or professional competitive video game playing. I don’t like that either, on the exact same way that I don’t like conventional sports much. It’s the exact same thing, just with video games instead of traditional sports. I don’t care how far Johhny Somebody can throw a ball to win a sports game as little as I care about how well Billy Anykid can play Overwatch and get that game winning kill – it’s all pointlessly excessive to me.
That being said, I’m not going to hate anyone for liking e-sports. Hell, a guy I work with is a somewhat major Smash Bros. player, and I love that he can make money playing a game he enjoys. I’d fully support him for as far as he can go in any given event, but that’s for the sake of him as a person and as a friend – I couldn’t care less for the rest of the competitive gaming scene.
Really, it’s just not something I like. Yes, by technicality, it is “abnormal” to not like sports, as the more common situation is for people to enjoy such, but that’s just my preference, and I feel I hold no real double standards on this. I can have some fun, and hell, I actually do enjoy Hockey quite a bit, but be it a real sport, a video game, or even card games, I like to keep it casual – the hardcore competition just isn’t my scene, and that’s fine.
No, I Don’t Really Care About Sports, And That’s Okay – Part 1
No, I Don’t Really Care About Sports, And That’s Okay – Part 2